//
Iris Ferguson on DOD’s Move to Form Arctic Strategy & Global Resilience Office
Published on
Iris Ferguson on DOD’s Move to Form Arctic Strategy & Global Resilience Office

The Department of Defense created an office to protect U.S. interests in the Arctic and Iris Ferguson, the newly appointed deputy assistant secretary for Arctic and global resilience at DOD, described the region as critical for homeland defense and power projection, DOD News reported Tuesday.

“It’s important to have an office like this now to try to start laying the groundwork for how we can best prepare ourselves and to know what the challenges of the future may be,” said Ferguson, formerly a senior adviser on Arctic and climate security issues for U.S. Air Force Futures.

“There might not be conflict now – and there hopefully will never be conflict in the Arctic – but we need to be prepared to operate there,” she added.

Ferguson said DOD is witnessing coastal erosion and other geophysical changes that have an impact on its radar sites and other infrastructure and operations and is working to mitigate problems related to melting permafrost foundations.

Ferguson mentioned geopolitical activities by strategic competitors like Russia and China in the Arctic and the U.S. defense strategy in the region.

“The priorities for that defense strategy are in protecting the homeland, ensuring that our national interests are safeguarded and protected, and working with nations on shared challenges,” Ferguson said. “The overarching goal is to ensure we maintain peace and stability in the region.”

/
House Lawmakers Ask FCC to Delay Consideration of Potential Orbital Debris Mitigation Rules
Published on
House Lawmakers Ask FCC to Delay Consideration of Potential Orbital Debris Mitigation Rules

A group of bipartisan House lawmakers sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission to postpone consideration of potential rules to mitigate the risk of orbital space debris at its upcoming meeting on Thursday.

“As leaders of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, we understand the importance of supporting a safe, sustainable space environment. However, we are concerned that the Commission’s proposal to promulgate rules on this matter could create uncertainty and potentially conflicting guidance,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter dated Tuesday.

According to the letter, the FCC does not have clear congressional authority to implement regulations with regard to orbital debris mitigation and NASA is tasked with reviewing the country’s standards and practices for such matters.

Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas; Frank Lucas, R-Okla.; Don Beyer, D-Va.; and Brian Babin, R-Texas, signed the Sept. 27 letter, which was addressed to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

Johnson and Lucas respectively serve as chairwoman and ranking member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. Beyer acts as chairman and Babin as ranking member of the House subcommittee on space and aeronautics.

/
GSA Promotes Use of Robotic Process Automation
Published on
GSA Promotes Use of Robotic Process Automation

The General Services Administration has implemented robotic process automation tools to modernize several internal tasks and is offering assistance to other federal agencies that want to improve operational efficiency with such technology.

RPA has helped agency personnel to significantly reduced processing time and minimize errors especially through the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a GSA blog post published Monday.

The Heartland Acquisition Center RPA, or HACMAN bot, has aided GSA employees in managing nearly 20,000 orders and has saved the agency nearly 5,000 labor hours since the software application was launched in January.

GSA is working to adopt more intelligent automation such as optical character recognition and natural language processing software designed to capture unstructured data from images and documents with different types or formats. 

The agency expects its automated system to support the processing of 8,000 federal leases that are due for an update in compliance with new accounting standards slated to take effect in October 2023.

GSA intends for the RPA program to spare over 32,000 hours of tedious, manual tasks and is promoting process automation adoption through its Federal RPA Community of Practice.

/
Juliane Gallina, CIA’s Associate Deputy Director of Digital Innovation, Shares Top Intelligence Community Priorities & Threats in New Video Interview
Published on
Juliane Gallina, CIA’s Associate Deputy Director of Digital Innovation, Shares Top Intelligence Community Priorities & Threats in New Video Interview

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has been at the forefront of global intelligence for the past 75 years; today, in order to stay ahead of evolving threats and maintain the United States’ information advantage, the agency is adapting in new ways.

Juliane Gallina, associate deputy director of the CIA’s Digital Innovation directorate, spoke with Executive Mosaic in a new video interview about how global events are impacting the U.S. intelligence community, which new technologies we should be focusing on today, how our adversaries are changing the threat landscape and what American citizens can do to help stop the dangerous spread of disinformation.

Click here to watch the full video interview with the CIA’s Juliane Gallina, and be sure to subscribe to Executive Mosaic’s YouTube channel so you never miss an interview!

/
NSWCDD to Host Virtual AI Innovation Challenge for University Students
Published on
NSWCDD to Host Virtual AI Innovation Challenge for University Students

Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division is hosting a virtual innovation challenge aimed at developing artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to automate the scheduling and coordination of advanced weapon systems.

The two-phase competition offers a total of $75,000 in cash prizes and is open for college and university student innovators who will be given access to the U.S. Navy’s Joint Cognitive Operational Research Environment, Naval Sea Systems Command said Monday.

JCORE is a medium-fidelity software tool that serves as the service branch’s in-house wargaming system designed to simulate fleet-level exercises.

During the first phase of challenge, the selected teams, each consisting of no more than five students, will develop and submit their white paper.

NSWCDD will hold a virtual panel on Sept. 30 to answer questions about the competition.

//
DHS S&T’s Melissa Oh on SVIP’s Role in Strengthening Cyber Infrastructure
Published on
DHS S&T’s Melissa Oh on SVIP’s Role in Strengthening Cyber Infrastructure

Melissa Oh, managing director of Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate’s Silicon Valley Innovation Program, said the SVIP initiative plays a critical role in boosting the nation’s defenses against cyber threats.

In a blog post, Oh said the funding program expands DHS S&T’s reach to identify new technologies designed to strengthen national security by partnering with the innovation community.

“The program reaches out to innovation communities across the nation and around the world to harness the commercial R&D ecosystem for technologies with government applications and to co-invest in and accelerate technology transition-to-market,” Oh explained.

SVIP has identified 16 technologies from three separate cybersecurity topic areas, namely internet of things security, financial services cyber security active defense and identity and anti-spoofing of non-person entities.

The program has an open other transaction solicitation that have up to five phases and a total funding of approximately $75 million over the next five years.

“Since its inception, SVIP has remained committed to identifying and developing the most innovative technology to support DHS in its mission to fortify the nation’s cybersecurity,” Oh said.

/
AFRL, New York ANG Partner to Advance AI C2 Technology Development
Published on
AFRL, New York ANG Partner to Advance AI C2 Technology Development

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Information Directorate in Rome has entered into an agreement with the New York Air National Guard’s 152nd Air Operations Group to develop artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies for military command and control.

Under the memorandum of understanding, the partnership will develop and execute a repeatable process to assess the use of AI and machine learning-powered command and control technologies and establish procedures that support next-generation concept of operations, Air Force Material Command said Monday.

The partnership also aims to advance command and control operations in support of the Joint All Domain Command and Control initiative and the Advanced Battle Management System.

“Command and control is about decision superiority and this partnership will improve security and protection,” said Col. Fred Garcia, director of AFRL’s Information Directorate.

The MOU will also ease the creation, integration and maintenance of AI/machine learning command and control functionalities, paving a way for a “more straightforward setup to enable better management and performance,” Garcia added.

/
AWS, Nonprofit Partner to Offer Midterm Campaign Cybersecurity Services
Published on
AWS, Nonprofit Partner to Offer Midterm Campaign Cybersecurity Services

Amazon Web Services has teamed up with the nonprofit Defending Digital Campaigns organization to give federal political campaigns and committees access to cybersecurity services that can help protect sensitive data and other information assets.

Leo Zhadanovsky, chief technologist of education and worldwide public sector at AWS, wrote in a blog post published Thursday that national party and federal candidate committees can obtain cybersecurity platforms at minimal cost through a program authorized by the Federal Election Commission.

The partnership is offering 20 software suites at low to no cost to eligible committees that are active and registered for this year’s House and Senate midterm elections.

DDS received permission from the commission to offer subsidized internet security services and education and information sharing assistance during election campaigns as long as the nonprofit complies with campaign finance laws.

Zhadanovsky said cybersecurity tools will enable the benefitting parties to monitor their accounts, users and storage for potential threats and mitigate potential attacks.

Users can also discover and protect sensitive data through machine learning and pattern matching, the AWS executive noted.

He added that qualified parties may enroll their campaign in the program on the AWS website or by contacting the company’s public sector team.

/
Cyberspace Solarium Commission Report: At Least 30% of 2020 Recommendations Reach Full Implementation
Published on
Cyberspace Solarium Commission Report: At Least 30% of 2020 Recommendations Reach Full Implementation

The Cyberspace Solarium Commission listed 82 policy recommendations in March 2020 to implement a layered cyber deterrence strategy and transform how the U.S. government responds to cyberthreats and of these recommendations, 30.5 percent are now fully implemented.

CSC said in its 56-page report that 28 percent of its recommendations are nearing implementation and nearly 27 percent are on track to implementation.

According to the report, at least 2 percent of the commission’s recommendations are facing significant barriers to implementation and over 12 percent have been tagged as “progress limited” when it comes to implementation.

The commission’s 82 recommendations are organized into six pillars: reform the U.S. government’s structure organization for cyberspace; strengthen norms and nonmilitary tools; promote national resilience; reshape the cyber ecosystem; operationalize cybersecurity collaboration with the private sector; and preserve and employ the military instrument of national power.

CSC noted several improvements in the country’s cybersecurity in the past two years, including the passage of the Cyber Incident Reporting Act, the appointment of a national cyber director at the White House to oversee cyber strategy and policy implementation and the formation of the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The report cited increased funding for federal cybersecurity initiatives, such as increasing CISA’s budget by over 25 percent to $2.59 billion in appropriations for fiscal year 2022.

The document also highlighted the transition to the CSC 2.0 project, which will continue to monitor and assess the implementation of the commission’s recommendations.

/
GSA Seeks Public Comment on Proposed Identity Proofing Study
Published on
GSA Seeks Public Comment on Proposed Identity Proofing Study

The General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services has issued a notice of request for comments regarding its study of equality in the use of remote identity proofing technology.

TTS aims to determine the technological factors that hinder equitable public access to services such as facial verification applications, according to the agency’s notice posted in Federal Register.

The public comment solicitation is required in order for the agency to get clearance from the Office of Management and Budget to conduct research on biometric and non-biometric checks on participants from different demographic backgrounds.

For its study, TTS will examine demographic data such as race, gender and age along with personally identified information, including participants’ state ID Card pictures, to help GSA understand how they impact the performance of remote identity-proofing systems.

The deadline for submitting comments is on Nov. 21.

1 … 762 763 764 765 766 … 2,659